Workers dig out dead after Syria regime strike on Aleppo

At least eight people were killed on Tuesday, among them four children, when Syrian regime helicopters dropped explosives-packed barrel bombs on a district of northern Aleppo, a monitoring group said.

The attack between the neighbourhoods of Sakhur and Sheikh Khodr caused widespread damage, levelling several buildings and shearing the facades off others.

Civil defence members in the rebel-held east of the city rushed to the scene, using bulldozers and pickaxes to clear rubble and twisted metal.

Some local residents also pitched in to help, as others could only looked on, dazed at the destruction.

The emergency crews partly unearthed one body, which appeared to be that of a teenager clad in pink trousers visible under thick dust.

Not far away, they worked to remove rubble from around another body, a small arm that appeared to be that of a child emerging from the shattered brickwork.

“The strike here was this morning. Can you show me even one person here from the Free Syrian Army (rebel fighters)?” asked Jihad, who survived the bombing.

“The people here were all women and children who were sleeping,” he said.

Shuhud al-Hussein, a member of the civil defence forces, said his team had rushed to the scene after hearing the sound of the barrel bomb explosion.

“A helicopter dropped two barrels,” he said.

“This area doesn’t have any military groups in it at all, it’s just residents, women and children,” Hussein said.

“We’re trying to help the people here: we were able to pull two children out alive, thank God,” he added.